Another Slenderman Story
by Rottenmelon
Summary: Tryna do a thing. This is the story of Conrad. He's just a kid. Why is this happening?
1. Chapter 1

_**XO Chapter 1 Ox**_

Today my aunt and uncle are visiting. The ones I never met.

I'm waiting impatiently for 3 P.M., simply out of curiosity.

The weather sucks. The sky is gray, but it's not raining.

There's a lot of light, but the colors are all faded and I don't feel like doing anything except for staring at the trees outside.

I jump up when the doorbell rings downstairs.

I run down the stairs and when I finally reach the living room, I examine the newcomers.

My uncle is a slightly tall man, well-dressed. He's not very muscular, but he seems intelligent.

His wife also has really neat clothes and make-up, in fact she's wearing a tailleur that looks very expensive. She looks nice. Smart.

Their child is a little girl who looks just about ten.

She's a thin, short little thing with a slightly dazed face that clashes with her cute white-and-blue dress.

It's pretty obvious that she's adopted, because we all have a pretty dark skin, while she looks more like the paper sheets I write on.

From when I'm in the room, she does nothing but stare at me. She stares. Stares. Stares. Stares. And stares.

My parents call me and I'm immediately hit by an open fire of "Look at how much you've grown up!" and "What a handsome boy you've become!", but my little cousin says nothing.

We're studying each other, like birds of prey with a common target.

In the gray light, she looks like a ghost.

A faded, hostile ghost.

"Conrad, this is Celes. Be nice to her, alright?" Mom tells me, stirring me from the staring contest.

I don't know how long I'll be able to respect that order.

We sit on the couches in the living room, me near the child.

Our parents are chatting happily, so they don't hear her ask me "Can you bring me in the woods?" with the most serious face.

I'm appalled.

The woods terrorize most of the people I know, including me, all thanks to the horror stories told by the grown-ups, that wrapped it in mystery with the rumors of unexplained disappearances and bloody murders.

"No, I can't." I reply while I shake my head. "It's too dangerous, especially for a kid like you and an idiot like me."

"Then I'm going alone."

…

Wait, what?

"Nonononono, you can't. No." I say with a higher pitch and the most resolved voice I can. What is she thinking!?

"Then come with me."

Lil' shit.

My willpower, as steadfast as butter, gives in under her insistence. I surrender.

"Ehm... excuse me, Mrs... Mrs. aunt Alina?" I say hesitantly . So cringey.

"Yes?" she answers with a smile and half a laugh. "Ah, and "aunt Alina" is alright." she adds.

"Ok... Celes insists to go see the woods. I told her it's dangerous, but she doesn't want to listen to me. I thought I'd take her to the border, then go back." Deep down, I want to see the woods too, even if I learned not to go there the hard way.

The four adults confabulate for a bit, then uncle Malcom replies "You can go, but do not enter the forest for any reason."

Celes wears a triumphant grin, then she drags me away, to the door.

In no time, we're at not even ten meters from the woods.

I start having a cold sweat.

Nine meters.

Eight meters.

Something that happened many years ago comes back to my mind.

Seven meters.

Six meters.

Cold.

Dark.

Noises everywhere.

Claws.

One meter.

I stop Celes.

A red flash passes through the trees and I hold her little hand tighter.

A face-not-a-face that looks like the moon peeks from behind a tree, tall and black.

Celes tries to get closer, but I lift her up and run towards home.

It couldn't have been what I think.

I run until I reach the door.

I'm out of breath, my lungs burn and my arms, legs and back hurt.

I take huge breaths that never seem enough in an attempt to recover, then I slam my open hand on the door.

During all of that, Celes laughs.

When they finally open up, I run inside and I speed-walk upstairs, to my bedroom. To my nest.

I ignore the questions. The kid will answer those. They probably won't think she's _that _crazy.

I close the door and flop down on the bed, then I get my computer.

I stare at the black screen for a while, admiring my reflection.

Black hair, curly as hell and sloppily tied. Visibly greasy skin (Ew). Purple bags underneath my eyes.

I suddenly get up. I go to the window and snap the curtains shut, then go back to what I was doing.

I start fucking around on the Internet and I get distracted only when Mom knocks at the door.

"Conrad? Come say bye to the uncles!" she tells me without opening up.

I sigh and get up unwillingly.

I get out of my hole and go downstairs with her.

My uncles look shaken, while Celes is smiling as if they just gave her a huge lollipop.

The goodbyes are pretty hurried, but they manage to give us a decent smile. I love them already.

When they go, the child waves bye-bye at me.

And she laughs.

**xO End of Chapter 1 Ox**


	2. Chapter 2

**xO Chapter 2 Ox**

Tonight I'm not sleeping.

Again.

I wonder what Celes said to the uncles.

Was it a good idea to go and see the woods?

Don't think so.

Oh god tomorrow I gotta go to school

Oh god will I get to tomorrow? Or will I die first?

To distract myself, I get my computer and start listening to some music. Mac+ is definitely what I need.

While the notes of BOOT start turning off my brain, I notice the curtains.

The open curtains.

And I closed them.

The atmosphere is ruined.

I get up to close them, unwillingly taking off my headphones.

I don't dare to look at the forest for more than the fraction of a second.

I think I saw a white oval in the middle of the black sea of trees, but I'm not enough of an idiot to double-check.

I go back to my pastime as if nothing happened.

And today, we're sleeping tomorrow. _If_ there will be a tomorrow. =)


	3. Chapter 3

**xO Chapter 3 Ox**

Sadly, I wake up, like every other day, at around a quarter to seven, with my face squished on the keyboard.

I mean, I imagine it's a good thing to be still alive, but I don't feel like sitting through 8 hours straight of school...

In about 45 minutes I'm in the hated building, speed-walking towards the English classroom.

Why can't Der Grossemann just take the teacher...?

Skipping all of the useless details, I get to the class and- oh! The teacher's absent!

The class celebrates in front of a floored substitute. My contribution to the general rejoicing is a smile that sticks to my face for the next 10 minutes.

Later, at lunch, I throw myself on the first table with a free spot.

While I take out my meager sandwich, I start trying to make out the conversation of the other guys who are sitting next to me. It's pretty hard because of the deafening chatter going on all around, but eventually, I figure out what they're saying.

"Molly told me... her father's a cop, right? She said he's been gone since Friday. They didn't say anything because it could be nothing, but no one saw him get in or get out of his house."

This is interesting.

Molly Coles. A pretty scary girl, daughter of two policemen. She's been taking self-defense lessons for years and she's pretty damn muscly. I mean, nothing too extraordinary, but still somewhat unusual for a 16 years old. She's pretty sadistic, but I like her sense of humor.

This is what I do.

I know everything about everyone, I'm that guy who puts out rumors and that knows every single detail about the social life and opinions of every single student.

To counterbalance that, I have no friends.

Except for Molly.

And I rarely talk to her.

I should go hang out with her sometime...

I go back to the conversation. Most of what these two are saying is speculation on what might have happened.

Then finally I discover that the one who disappeared is my English teacher.

I feel some kind of tightness to my chest.

He was an asshole, but he taught me stuff for two years...

Oh well. Let's not worry too early. He could be on vacation... I dunno.

Once the lessons are over, I'm heading home.

Finally, more free time.

Right when I put my hand on the cold doorknob, I think that no one can ruin my day.

I open the door.

And confusion washes over my brain.

Celes is sitting on our couch, serious, like an insurance agent, today she's wearing jeans overalls.

And at this point I start wondering what the hell she's doing in our house.

As soon as she sees me, the damned pulls out a smile.

I place my backpack on a chair and say "Hi Celes. Hi, mom." while I stare at the little one. "Why is she here?" I ask, then sit at the table.

"Oh, her, your aunt and uncle moved here." she answers nonchalantly.

I can feel my brain explode.

"So now Celes will go to St. Renée?"

St. Renée is the town's elementary school, right in front of the high school.

"Exactly."

Shit.

"Celes came here just to get some oil, her father has the day off, so he decided he'd cook something."

"Ok..." I simply answer.

While mom gets the oil from the pantry, I walk upstairs to my room.

I can see the little girl waving at me with her hand and I wave back.


	4. Chapter 4

**xO Chapter 4 Ox**

The day afterwards, in school. While I take my books out of the locker, feeling like the perfect protagonist of a tv series, someone rudely jerks at my shoulder.

I turn and find Dominic Collins' pretty face two inches away from mine. He's really fucking mad and I think I know why... it might be because of something I may, may not have said regarding some happenings that took place months ago at a party.

"How could you even think to tell that around?" he growls quietly.

Knew it.

"Dunno." I answer. "Just because." I smile and I shrug. I'm scared, but not that much.

Collins pushes me against the locker and my fear rises. My smile fossilizes on my face. What do I do now? Usually, I'd blackmail him with the information I have, but now my friend here has nothing else to lose...

In the mean time, all around us people have started flocking together. And no one is even bothering to try and help me!

Collins raises his fist and I can already feel the impact destroy my face.

Then, with the corner of my eye, I see.

I see the crowd splitting in two between whispers. And in the middle, her. Advancing like Moses in the sea, a way overused comparison, but fitting nonetheless. My purple-and-green-haired saving grace making her way towards us.

Molly grabs Collins' arm and twists it behind his back. When she hears him wince in pain, she gives us a grin that belongs to a hyena, which is kind of creepy, but to me, it looks like the smile of an angel.

She rudely pushes him aside, then grabs me by the wrist and drags me away.

We sneak inside of an empty classroom and Molly starts laughing like a psychopath. "Da hell did you do to him?" she says while she sneers.

"Uuuh... I told what happened at Thomas Lightgarden's party? Please don't beat me up..." I answer, at the end of the sentence my voice tones down to a whisper.

Observing better the room, I realize it's an abandoned class.

There's derelict chairs and desks full of graffiti, abandoned from ages ago along with some destroyed blackboard. The blinds are closed, the room is semi-dark and in the shadows, Molly's gray hair seems to shine.

"You're such an asshole!" she says while she laughs. Right now, she seems more dangerous than ever. I know she wouldn't hurt me, but I'm keeping all of my senses vigilant anyways.

There's part of a threat in her well-visible teeth, in her amused eyes.

I'm a rabbit, she's a fox.

The bell rings and we both jump, startled.

She laugh a bit more, then asks "Wanna skip school?"

"What?" I say, baffled. I have never skipped a single school day in my life, I don't wanna break that record...

"I'm taking that as a yes." Molly smiles at me and she pulls me by the sleeve to the window.

"Open it!" she orders while she pushes up the blinds, leaning them on her shoulder to hold them open. The light brightens up the room while I start pushing the heavy, dusty window.

It moves painfully slow, but it moves.

When the opening is big enough to pass, I slide outside, then Molly follows me, gently putting down the wrecked blinds.

We close up the window again and start going.

"I know a place, wanna go there? S' close enough." she suggests.

I nod. "Where is it?"

"It's a surprise!"

* * *

After a few minutes of walking, we get near the forest and a suspicion starts creeping upon my mind.

"That place you were talking about... it's not in the woods, right?"

"Oh?" she turns to me. "Yeah, it's in there." and she goes on, undaunted.

I freeze.

Shit.

The trees, towering and dark, look like guardians. But not mine. Those trees protect the secrets, not the madman who tries to steal them. They shield the creatures tasked with maintaining the sanctuary undisturbed by human hands and signal the presence of intruders.

Intruders like me, Celes and Molly.

She notices I'm not walking anymore. She turns with a questioning expression, then she comes back and starts dragging me. "What's wrong?" she asks.

On impulse, I plant my feet on the ground.

"Don't make me go there..." the pleading tone of my voice makes me sick.

"Come on, whaddya think's gonna happen to you?"

She keeps dragging me towards that damned place...

"I don't know, but don't make me go there! Please..."

My voice cracks and my eyes are flooded by tears. My head hurts.

Finally, she quits pulling.

I let myself fall down on the grass and Molly sits next to me.

"Why?" she simply asks.

"It's a bit of a long thing...

* * *

I live near the forest.

When I was a kid, I always wanted to go there, despite the adults' stories. It had me fascinated, to me it seemed irresistible to find out the things hidden by the trees.

And one night, I decided I'd put my project into action.

I don't remember how, but I sneaked out. I couldn't see anything, but I made my way through the woods anyways, as resolved as ever. I heard noises everywhere, I was tense and always alert. Maybe, subconsciously, I knew what I was going to run into.

At one point, I got to a clearing.

It was beautiful. Just like that, lightened up by the moon, with the shadows of the trees that seemed to slide on the flowers like black streams and the grass that barely moved. I was hypnotized.

Thank god- or better, thanks to my hearing- I noticed a noise that had nothing to do with plants.

It was a slow, irregular breath, kinda like when you're sleeping with your mouth open but your throat is also stuffed.

The short breaths interchanged with the long ones and they got closer, they came from somewhere in front of me.

My 8-years-old self's mind suggested to turn and run and so I did.

Even now I'm really damn slow, maybe even more than back then, in fact I have no idea how I saved myself.

I ran at my max capacity, I don't even know from what.

I kept tripping and falling and getting back up in an endless, frustrating cycle that terrified me, along with the idea of being lost and not being able to go back home.

At some point, I fell and couldn't get up.

There was a weight flattening my back and it added up to the blind terror that was already suffocating me.

That thing kept whispering in a language I didn't know and pressed its claws on my neck. It annoyed me and I think it knew. I also had the vague awareness that soon the thing would start digging in my back, ripping out the spine, pulling it out of the skull, doing whatever it had to do and then leave my remains behind, turning me into one of those "missing people" on the papers, the ones you pity, then forget.

Without any notice, the monster did what I feared.

When it sank its claws into my arm, I don't remember what I felt, exactly, only the shock when its weight got off my back all of a sudden.

Taking advantage of the moment, I got up once again and took off running blindly. The pain was starting to kick in. My arm and lungs burned, my legs hurt... but I would have done anything to put as much distance as possible between me and that thing.

I could hear it scream in the distance.

I guess I don't need to tell you that I got home without getting harmed further."

* * *

Molly is staring at me, considerably shaken and in disbelief.

"No. That ain't true."

I shake my head and pull up the sleeve of my hoodie.

There, on the right forearm, stand out like white commas on a black sheet five big scars with undefined borders.

She stretches out her hand as if to touch them, then pulls back. She seems doubtful.

Finally, while I get my sleeve back down, she says "I believe you."


	5. Chapter 5

**xO Chapter 5 Ox**

We spend the remaining time just fucking around, as far as possible from the city, then we decide to go home. Well, my home.

When we get there, mom says hi to us, then asks "Who's this girl, Conrad?" with a sly smile. I snort. "Don't you get any weird ideas, we're just friends." Why does this crap happen every time I go around with any exponent of the opposite sex?

Mom chuckles. "Alright, alright... by the way, I tried to clean up your room, but I found out it's harder than I imagined, so, when your friend goes away, you're doing it."

I sigh, then I say "Ah, her name's Molly Coles."

"The policemen's daughter, right?"

She smiles, flashing all of those shark teeth and nodding.

"Your parents keep you in line, eh?" mom asks again with a smile.

"They try..." Molly answers, grinning.

We chat for a while, then go upstairs to my room.

It's a fuckin' mess and I'm not even ashamed.

With some effort, I manage to get through all the comics, books, shirts and CDs thrown around and get my hands on a chair. I pick up some things and lay them on the desk, then collapse on the bed. Molly sits on the chair, wearing an amused expression.

"Nice room." she says while she looks around. "Thanks." I answer, while I keep staring at the ceiling. I turn and my gaze falls on the window.

The curtains are open.

I get up and look out, barely noticing Molly following me.

Outside, the trees move slightly under the weak wind. They cradle themselves, make fun of me, rub in the fact that I can't run from them and from their creatures.

Because I know that Molly can see him too.

He's still there.

Tall. With really really long arms. He looks like a tree.

I think he's staring at us.

I don't want to move, I want to keep looking at him.

A morbid curiosity is motivating me: I want to absorb as many details as I can.

His skin is white, it seems paper stretched over a skull. I can clearly distinguish the cheekbones and brow ridge, along with a vague recess where the eyes should be.

His posture is straight, precise, like that of someone with a cast-iron education that he imposes to others as well.

The arms, long, disproportionate, end at about the middle of his legs with big, knobby hands, white as well.

The light wind slightly moves the hair that slip from my ponytail. I'm a bit cold, because of the short-sleeved shirt I'm wearing. Now I can clearly hear the rustling of leaves and grass with no barriers.

He keeps staring at me. Thanks to the vicinity, I can even notice the muscles sliding, contracting underneath the skin of his "face" in a way that resembles a smile.

How'd I end up outside?

Something in my head unblocks, kinda like when you fixate on something then, somehow, you get distracted.

I jerk my head to the side, just to make sure that Molly is still next to me.

She's all tense, defensive, a threatened predator. She could lash at the least sign of danger.

But he just disappears.

I find myself staring at a tree.

It's as if the leaves, the wind, the grass were laughing at us.


	6. Chapter 6

**xO Chapter 6 Ox**

We manage to get back in without mom noticing, all thanks to Molly.

I can't do anything except following her, letting her drag me around, as docile as a lamb.

Once we're in my bedroom, she pushes me down on the bed, then sits on the chair from before.

"Conrad." she calls out to me.

I look at her, but I can't concentrate on her face.

I can't tell what she's feeling.

I hide my face in my hands.

I don't wanna see anything anymore.

My head hurts.

"Conrad, look at me." she says, forcing me to open my eyes.

She's really worried.

Her fear comes through as clear as day, through her frowning mouth or the eyebrows close together. Her hand's still wrapped tightly around my wrist.

My headache's almost gone. Molly must have noticed I'm feeling better, she relaxes a bit and manages to smile.

We remain silent for a few moments, then she says "Maybe I know why you freaked like that." I give her a weirded-out look. "What?"

"I mean, I know why you panicked. This stuff just slides over you, you don't give a damn about being teleported outta your house." While she speaks, the makes hand gestures like she's crazy. She also seems confused...? "You ain't scared of being brought from point A to point B instantly, you're scared by not knowing what that thing's thinking about." And she points at the window. "That... stick in the mud has no face, so you can't know what it's feeling. You can't look at its mouth, eyes or eyebrows to see how it reacts so you can't get prepared."

…

"I think you got it." I answer, surprised. I didn't think she was that intuitive. Well she _should_ learn to express herself better. Then I realize something.

"You took this whole thing surprisingly well. You always stayed calm, even when that thing was at just a few meters from us."  
She seems to get sadder.

"Well... my grandpa always told me not to ask questions, don't ask why, just do what you're told to do. I always thought his advice was bullshit, but lately they revealed themselves to be way more useful than I thought."

Automatically, as if we had an agreement, the conversation moved onto our families, on grandparents, on parents, on uncles. So, on Celes.

"Celes is..." I start to say, then I stop.

Do I tell her?

"...

she's my adopted cousin. She moved here two, three days ago from Alabama. I don't know much about her old family, but I know that the house they used to live in burned down and that's how her parents died..

After the fire, Celes started saying that she knew it would have happened and that a dog told her.

Some time earlier, in fact, every night she dreamed a... monster sitting at the foot of her bed, some kind of hairless dog that whispered in a language she didn't understand.

It was most definitely an hallucination, but I have no idea how she predicted the fire and ran away in time. Maybe it was her, but I doubt that.

Another detail was that lately she stated that to set the house on fire was someone called "Firebrand" and she described him as an average guy, with wavy, scruffy hair, a face full of scars and "pinhole eyes", to say it in her own words."

Molly squints her eyes. "Hold on, it reminds me of something I read some time ago..."

She snaps opens her eyelids again after a few seconds, then takes out her phone, writes something furiously and shoves the screen in my face. I take it and quickly scroll down the article she found.

On the top, there's the picture of a man that looks just like Celes' description, except for the eyes: those are normal. His face is covered by a large, old-looking burn scar. He's smiling, he looks nice.

The title of the article announces the disappearance of a student. Noah Maxwell, barely 20 years old, lives alone and attends a local university in Florida. He's an overall average student, with a good family life and friendships.

One day, he stops going out of the house, skips lessons and quits all contact with everyone. Then the neighbors, one night, hear him scream desperately. Then nothing.

No trace of him is found, except for various bottles of alcohol and a diary that originally belonged to his deceased cousin, Milo Asher.

"Do you think it's him?" I ask, doubtful.

"Could be..." she answers, cautious. "I mean- they look alike. That guy disappeared at least 6 months ago. When was the fire?"  
"... four, five months ago."

"See? I don't get why it couldn't be him."

I snort. "Maybe because he lived in Florida and Celes was in Alabama?"

Molly pouts. "Well, what if he committed some crime even before disappearing, so he ran away? After all, Florida and Alabama aren't that distant from each other."

We keep theorizing, then at a certain point it gets ridiculous. We talk about every single possibility, from a secret lover to a satanic cult, while Molly does some research on the guy.

At a certain point, she doesn't answer my joke. She's concentrating on the screen of her phone.

When I lean over to see what caught her attention, I find out it's pictures of a notebook.

"What's this?" I ask and Molly answers "it's Milo Asher's diary, the one they found in Maxwell's house. Asher killed himself some time earlier."

She shows me the pictures from the start. They show a notebook closed with a lock. On the cover, in the top left corner there's a weird symbol.

On the pages, along with the handwriting, there's drawings.

Of the Firebrand.

And the faceless creature.

The bell rings downstairs. It's Molly's parents. When we say goodbye, she promises to send me a link to the pictures.

I spend that night racking my brains over that journal and avoiding the window as accurately as possible.

When I fall asleep on my computer's keyboard, it's about 3 AM.

* * *

I would like to mention that Firebrand, Noah and Milo are **not **my characters. They belong to Adam Rosner, the creator of TribeTwelve. They will not appear anymore in this story.


End file.
